Even from the opening image of John D.
Hancock's slice of 1970s horror-melancholia it becomes apparent that
this is film where things won't be seen clearly. A woman, hidden in
silhouette, sits in a boat steadily drifting away from the shore. The
morning mist distorts our view, while the orange sunrise adds an
unreality to the scene - as if this is something dreamed. To
further muddy the cognitive waters, we are introduced to this place
by Jessica, who in a whispery internal monologue confesses that she
is unsure of what is real and what is not. And as she is our only
guide, inviting us to see the world through her eyes, we too begin to
question what we see. Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a film
about insanity, but what makes it so astounding is that it doesn't
ask us to study madness, but rather to share in it.(read more...)

Horror is fear of the unknown, the invisible terror
lurking just beyond our sight. Even in movies and literature when the
creature or abomination is exposed in all their grotesque glory, it
is the thought of them slinking in the darkness that creates the
tension. As the cliché goes, what you don't see is more
frightening than what you do see. Ambrose Bierce teaches us this most
valuable of lessons in his short but powerful tale of "The Damned
Thing."(read more...)

Guillermo del Toro has been attached to more projects in the past five years than I have fingers, but the one that I've always been most excited to see happen is finally finally coming to pass. Deadline New York reports that del Toro's next movie as director will definitely be an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness for Universal. James Cameron will be a producer on the film, which should come in handy since it will be shot in 3D. Cameras will start rolling next summer after what I'm sure will be a necessarily lengthy preproduction period.(read more...)

Murder, rape, necrophilia, police
brutality, booze, racism, melting flesh and a dismembered penis -
Street Trash certainly packs a lot into 90 minutes. While it's
easy to criticize the tasteless treatment of the subject matter,
especially the relentlessly negative portrayal of homeless people,
such an attitude misses the whole point of a film like this. Whether
it's the Sex Pistols singing "Belsen was a Gas" or comedians
like Lenny Bruce doing routines about race and religion, there will
always be artists who gleefully trample over society's boundaries
about what is acceptable material, and Street Trash definitely
belongs in this category. A more valid criticism of the film is that
it fails to exploit a great opportunity to go beyond the nihilism.(read more...)

Lullaby is by no means a conventional horror novel. Then again, Chuck
Palahniuk
is by no means a conventional horror novelist. Hell, Palahniuk isn't
even a conventional writer. While these factors may seem to be
detriments to the success of the book, Palahniuk's novel
accomplishes something that hardly seems possible in the world of
horror today: he has developed a completely new, unique, and
refreshing idea. Lullaby deserves to go down in the annals of
the best psychological/satirical/horror novels, however small said
annals may be.(read more...)

Horror may be my primary obsession, but it is by no means my only one. I've also taken to creating fanvids, which you can sort of think of as visual remixes of movies or television set to popular music (examples of my work can be found here, here, and here). Generally speaking, the friends I've made in the vidding community are separate from the ones I've made in the horror community, but sometimes there's a crossover which gives me great joy. The fanvid I'm presenting now involves one such crossover.

Eunice is a friend whose interests tend to run fairly parallel to my own, even though she's a much more talented vidder than I am. In her latest creation, set to the Plasmatics' "Legends Never Die," she explores the mythos of Freddy Krueger, from the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Of particular note is the way that she firmly reasserts Freddy as the spectral force of evil that he stopped being around the third or fourth film. You can see the vid after the jump.(read more...)

Are
you one of those growing numbers of horror film fans inflicted with
sequel-itis? That is the condition, caused by money-hungry studio
execs, that affects the areas of the brain that block impulses to see
a movie, no matter the quality level, just because it has a favorite
returning character and a number added to the title. If you're
looking for a cure, you won't find it with Exorcist
II: The Heretic,
a good-looking film with a big budget and even bigger name cast that
still manages to be a mess on so many levels.(read more...)

Dark and dirty things occur in the Deep South at the
dead of night, while the crickets are a-chirping and the big ol'
devil moon is smiling down at the earth. I apologize for the folksy
intro, but after reading "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner,
I can't help but get in the moonshine spirit of things. If the
bizarre effect the tale had on me isn't testament enough, I can
personally assure you that Faulkner's prose will have you convinced
that his town of Jefferson, Mississippi is as real as your own
childhood home.(read more...)

Of his 1988 film Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg said, "It has to do with that element of being human. It has to do with that ineffable sadness that is an element of human existence." This statement is entirely true. His film manages to simultaneously question and confirm the humanity and weaknesses of its central characters; however, Cronenberg's assessment of his own film is surprisingly reductive. Upon closer investigation, Dead Ringers seems to be about so much more. It's a complicated discussion of identity-how we come to understand ourselves, what defines us, and ultimately, what destroys us.(read more...)

The early 1930s
were an interesting time for filmmaking. Just as pictures were making
the transition from silent films to talkies, some of these movies ran
over a few road bumps on the path to glory through their broad acting
and creaky camera movements. But there were some filmmakers who
sought to overshadow these foibles with grand and sensational
material. Director Dwain Esper was a talent in the pioneering days of
sound films who knew the quickest way to an audience's heart:
mindless and morally objectionable drivel pumped through their
popcorn-greased veins. Good taste be damned! Morals? Bah! Dirty,
cheap entertainment? More of that please! You know what kind of film
you're in for when you witness a scene of young women parading
around a bedroom in nothing but their lingerie. Masterpiece Theater
this is not. These are qualities that make Maniac a melting
pot of depraved delights.(read more...)